Rescuers Seek 4 Missing After Deadly Italy Plant Blast

Rome, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2024) Rescuers on Wednesday searched for four workers still missing after an explosion at a hydroelectric plant in Italy, which has already left three confirmed dead.

"The toll is four missing and three dead," a fire service spokesman told AFP, revising downwards a toll of four killed given by local authorities on Tuesday evening.

But there are fears the death toll will rise, amid difficult searches at the Bargi hydroelectric plant run by Enel Green Power on Lake Suviana, near Bologna.

"The searches are continuing, the situation is particularly complex" with water still entering the plant, the fire service spokesman told AFP.

"We are not working with much hope of finding the missing (people) alive," another fire service spokesman, Luca Cari, told the ANSA news agency.

Five people were injured, according to the AGI news agency, which named the dead as three men aged 73, 45 and 35.

Enel Green Power, the renewables unit of energy giant Enel that operates the plant, offered its "deepest condolences" to the victims and their families following what it called a "serious accident".

It said Wednesday that "efficiency works" had been underway at the time, the contracts for which had been awarded in 2022 to three main companies, Siemens, ABB and Voith.

"From what has been reconstructed, the testing of the first-generation group had already been completed in the past days and, at the time the accident occurred, the testing of the second group was underway," the statement said.

"The company expresses its gratitude to the relevant authorities that are working tirelessly on rescue operations, to whom it is providing maximum support."

It previously said the dam basin of the plant had not been damaged in the accident and that there had been no impact on local or national energy supplies.

The mayor of the nearby town of Camugnano, Marco Masinara, called the explosion a "terrible workplace accident" that affected the "entire community".

"It seems there was a floor slab collapse and rescue is difficult as a lot of water entered inside the eighth basement floor," he said late Tuesday.